High-speed Rail Raises Concern Along Way

Environment Hearings Set For This Week

July 24, 2000|By David Ibata, Tribune Staff Writer.

Marcos Gutierrez, owner of the Pastimes Cafe in downtown Lockport, knows trains rolling by his front door are a fact of life; his restaurant, on 10th Street, sits cheek-by-jowl with the Illinois Central Railroad.

But when he bought the cafe this year, he never thought he might see bullet-nosed streamliners blasting past at speeds approaching 100 m.p.h.--as proposed in a new study of a high-speed rail line linking Chicago and St. Louis.

"That would be too fast," said Gutierrez, whose restaurant overlooks the tracks that separate Lockport's central business district from the historic buildings, pioneer village and bicycle path along the nearby Illinois and Michigan Canal. "There are a lot of people walking around, people with kids. It's too dangerous."

Other Lockport residents share Gutierrez's concerns. They're expected to turn out for public hearings on high-speed rail this week in Chicago, Joliet and other communities along the route.

The $285 million project is promising to cut rail travel time between Chicago and St. Louis to 3 1/2 hours from 5 1/2. Slated to open in phases between 2002 and 2005, it would be the Midwest's first high-speed rail line and a key component in Amtrak's plan to make Chicago the hub of a network that eventually would extend to Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, Cleveland and Cincinnati.

But the dream of fast 21st Century passenger trains stalls on the 19th Century rights-of-way they would travel.

Midwestern railroads invariably run through the center of older communities, with numerous grade crossings and streets, sidewalks and buildings constructed right up to the rails. Any proposal for fast trains invites objections over noise, vibration, hazardous crossings and the general disruption of community life.

Faced with similar protests when it introduced high-speed service between New York and Boston, Amtrak reportedly agreed to install 13 miles of chain-link fencing near stations and grade crossings between New Haven, Conn., and Boston.

The Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, a consortium of Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration and nine states including Illinois, plans to do New England one better. It would fence in the 280-mile right-of-way of the Chicago-St. Louis line, with "architecturally compatible" fencing in urban areas, said Randy Wade, chairman of the group's steering committee.

"The whole idea is to seal the corridor off, except for crossings, to keep children and others away from the trains," Wade said. "That should improve safety a lot."

To keep open as many public grade crossings as possible, the study recommends top train speeds of 110 m.p.h. along most of the route, down from 125 m.p.h. in a 1994 study. About 30 miles between Lincoln, Ill., and Springfield would be reserved for 125-m.p.h. running. The current speed limit is 79 m.p.h.

And in Lockport and Lemont--two hotbeds of opposition to past high-speed rail schemes--maximum speeds would drop to 95 and 90 m.p.h. respectively because of curves in the track.

"They're not closing any of our grade crossings now, but that doesn't mean our opposition has changed any. We still oppose it," said Larry McCasland, city administrator of Lockport. "We have in our historic downtown trains traveling literally a few feet from historic buildings."

To Lockport businessman Tom Alves, high-speed rail "is a disaster. It comes right through the center of our historic district." Alves is co-owner of the Public Landing Restaurant in the historic Gaylord Building, a few yards from the tracks.Don Arends, owner of Don's Barber Shop on State Street in downtown Lockport, agreed.

"To come through a residential and downtown area like this, I'm strictly against it," Arends said. "If you're in that big of a hurry to get from here to St. Louis, you can fly down there pretty cheap."

A few miles up the track, Lemont Village Administrator Steve Jones is steaming over what he said was the Illinois Department of Transportation's failure to notify communities along the route about the release of the study. Jones and several other southwest suburban officials contacted by the Tribune did not know about the environmental impact statement or the public hearings.

"The planning process is a little bit disorganized right now," Jones said.

The study envisions 16 high-speed trains a day between Chicago and St. Louis, up from Amtrak's six a day now. Most of the run would be on the Union Pacific Railroad right of way south of Joliet, with stops in Bloomington, Springfield and Alton.

Three possible routes into Chicago are listed. One is the present Amtrak route on the Metra Heritage Corridor/Illinois Central line north from Joliet through Lockport, Lemont and Summit. Another would follow the Metra Rock Island from Joliet through New Lenox, Tinley Park and Blue Island.